The Sunday Telegraph http://www.news.com.au/ Hundreds killed in bomb raids 28nov99 GROZNY: Hundreds of people in besieged towns in Chechnya died on Friday night and early yesterday during the heaviest bombardments by Russian forces since fighting began in September. Several hundred people were known to have been killed in air attacks and artillery barrages of Grozny and the towns of Urus-Martan and Argun, Chechen army chief of staff Mumadi Saidayev said. Foreign correspondents in Grozny reported that thousands of rockets, bombs and shells hit the city from all directions during an almost continuous bombardment that lasted until dawn. Saidayev said the raids caused "massive destruction", including the incineration of a hospital in Urus-Martan. Russian military leaders, meanwhile, have pledged to continue the operation against Muslim rebel forces in the Caucasus republic until all resistance has been crushed. "This is the way it will be from now on," deputy chief of staff General Valery Manilov said in Moscow. Taking advantage of an improvement in weather conditions and visibility, government jets and helicopters had flown about 100 sorties since yesterday, General Manilov said. Grozny would be "cleared of terrorists", but he ruled out a full storming of the city, where about 3000 rebels are believed to have dug in in anticipation of an offensive by Russian forces. Federal troops were entering the third phase of the eight-week-old operation, General Manilov said. This involved "the destruction of rebel bands and their bases in the foothills and mountains of Chechnya". General Manilov announced that the military had received instructions from President Boris Yeltsin to permanently deploy forces throughout the rebellious republic. This followed the declaration last month by Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev during a visit to front-line units that "We have come here with no intention of leaving." After government forces were effectively driven from Chechnya in the 1994-1996 conflict, the republic ran its own affairs, despite Moscow's position that it was still part of the Russian Federation. The federal government sent ground forces into Chechnya in September after heavy raids by Chechen-led gunmen into Dagestan and a series of bombings in Moscow and other cities that were blamed on Chechen terrorists. According to defence officials in Moscow, 187 army soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the operation. These losses are separate from those suffered by Interior Ministry forces. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
